Robert Schubert Plays the Clarinet Music of Julian Yu
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China Wind Robert Schubert plays the clarinet music of Julian Yu have been an admirer of composer Julian inherited musical tradition rather than superficially Yu had come across some ancient music known Yu’s music ever since we met in 1996 at borrowing its sounds and scales. To adopt the as Micius Laments the Silk while he was a student at the Melbourne International Festival of the structures and mental processes of his musical the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing. Micius, Arts. I have since commissioned a number predecessors, rather than their raw material: this is an ancient philosopher, had lamented that pure of works from Yu with the support of the Australia the great lesson Yu learned from his mentors, Joji silk was dyed with different colours, and likened Council. China Wind represents the fruits of Yuasa and Shinichiro Ikebe. this process to what happens to people when our collaboration. Each work owes aspects of its Yu originally wrote Sol Do La Re as an exercise they mix with the world, taking on the “colours” conceptionI to the composer’s native China and to in counterpoint for string quartet while he was of their environment, and losing their purity and the characteristics of the featured wind instrument, studying in Japan in 1985. While not strictly innocence. Micius Laments the Silk was written for the clarinet. serialist, the piece is built around a ground a kind of zither called the ch’in, an instrument The Melbourne International Festival of the bass of twelve tones. The tone row is arranged played by scholars whose music was considered to Arts originally commissioned Atanos in 1995 for pentatonically, and is repeated ten times as a be highly spiritual. For the ancient Chinese scholar performance by a group of French musicians at ground bass, above which the music gradually there were four skills it was imperative to cultivate: one of four concerts entitled Homage to Louise unfolds as a work of extraordinary beauty and chess, calligraphy, painting and playing the ch’in. Hanson Dyer that did not eventuate. Ensemble I emotional intensity. In 1996, I urged Yu to write Yu made some early attempts to write his own with myself playing clarinet presented the world a version for clarinet and string trio. The premiere version of Micius Laments the Silk, but these came premiere of the piece on 25 October 1996 at the of this version took place on September 9, 1999 to nothing until, many years later, I began urging Great Hall, National Gallery of Victoria as part of at the Religious Centre, Monash University, Yu to consider writing a new work. Yu felt that this the Melbourne International Festival of the Arts. Melbourne. musical idea was perfectly suited to the clarinet For the previous decade, I had been living and In 1997, I asked Yu to write a new work quintet. working in Japan, mainly with Hiroyuki Iwaki’s featuring the clarinet. I premiered The While The Lamentation of Micius includes Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa. During that time, Lamentation of Micius, for clarinet and string no material from the original ch’in piece, Yu uses I had been fortunate to work with some of Japan’s quartet, on 11 October 1998 at Chapel Off Chapel, the strings to imitate the sound of the ch’in. The finest composers, including Takemitsu, Ichiyanagi, Prahran, Melbourne. piece starts with pizzicato-glissandi, first on the Ikebe and Yuasa. I recognised in Yu’s music solo cello and then on all of the string the same craftsmanship, sensitivity to timbral instruments. The long notes of the clarinet nuance and structural proportion that I had combine with this pizzicato-glissando effect found in the best contemporary music of to create a meditative atmosphere. Gradually, Japan. It came as no surprise to me, then, to all of the parts become active, introducing a learn that Yu had studied in Japan with Joji spectrum of emotions including anger, fear, Yuasa and Shinichiro Ikebe. frustration, pity, sadness and hopelessness. Yu has always been fascinated by the The piece ends as it begins, with the organization, discipline and formularisation meditative sound of the ch’in subsiding into of Western classical music. These qualities, silence. which also belong to Chinese folk music, My next collaboration with Yu resulted can imply limitation, but Yu builds from in the Concerto on Chinese Themes such foundations with great freedom. The for Clarinet and String Orchestra, music of Atanos is non-programmatic and commissioned in partnership with conductor follows its own inner laws. Yu has adopted Marco van Pagee and the Victorian College the Chinese method of ornamentation, of the Arts. The Australian Broadcasting tapping into the inner structure of his Commission recorded the piece in 2004, and since then it has been broadcast many times. The second movement is slow, in keeping with The wild geese have brought no news of home. I first performed the work in concert with Marco classical concerto form. A wistful theme, taken The roads are long, my dreams are thinning out. van Pagee conducting the strings of the Victorian from a suona piece from Hebei Province, is played Sickness for home is like the grass in spring; College of the Arts at The BMW Edge in Federation first in the lower register of the clarinet, then The farther you travel, the thicker it grows. Square, Melbourne on August 21, 2004. I gave the moves to the higher registers, after which the cello professional world premiere of the concerto with takes over the theme, while the clarinet plays a 2 Silent and Alone Jeffrey Crellin conducting the Monash Academy counter melody above. in the Melbourne Recital Centre on September 23, The third movement is based on a famous piece Silent and alone I climb the west 2011 at a concert honouring Julian Yu as part of for wind and percussion from Hebei Province tower. the 2011 Chinese International Arts Festival. called Tao Jin Ling. Tao jin means to pan for gold The moon is like a hook. The concerto’s raw material comes from or seek a fortune. The atmosphere is exuberant. Desolate wu-t’ung tree in the shady northern Chinese instrumental music for wind The two occurrences of a long trill are traditionally courtyard imprison clear autumn. and percussion, a recognized genre often played at played using circular breathing, and are continued Cut, not severed, weddings and other celebrations. This is exuberant until the audience breaks into applause. The Disentangled, not unraveled; music, full of easily-remembered melodies, original drum and gong interludes can be heard The sorrow of parting strident sounds and striking rhythms. Yu hoped in the percussive string passages at the beginning, Is a strange and unknown flavour that Australian audiences would find the work middle and end of the movement. The concerto in the heart. unique and exciting, while Chinese listeners would closes with a virtuosic cadenza accompanied by recognize the melodies and feel nostalgia for their woodblocks in the style of traditional Chinese 3 Lingering Thoughts homeland. opera. In seeking a brighter, exuberant sound for this Silent And Alone is a setting of three poems One range of mountains, concerto, Yu has written for clarinet in C. This by Li Yu (937-978), the last emperor of the Two ranges of mountains, instrument is less commonly heard than the more Southern Tang Dynasty. Imprisoned after he The mountains far, the sky high, the misty water cold. regularly used clarinets in B flat and A. The clarinet was overthrown, Li Yu wrote in his diary that My deepest thoughts have reddened the maple leaves. in C is smaller and brighter in tone, and brings he “washed his face with his tears every day”, so a distinctive quality to the outer movements. miserable did he feel. Three poems Li Yu wrote Chrysanthemums blossom. Although I play the second movement on this during this time are titled Since We Parted, Silent Chrysanthemums fade, recording with the clarinet in B flat, I have played and Alone and Lingering Thoughts. The wild geese fly high, the traveler has not returned. the entire concerto in more recent performances on The wind and moon hover on the bamboo screen. the clarinet in C. 1 Since We Parted The concerto broadly follows the traditional (translated by Hsiung Ting) classical form and consists of three movements. Since we parted, spring is The first movement starts, unusually, with a lyrical, over. Yu first composed Silent and Alone for tenor leisurely and expressive cadenza. The following Everything I see is filled and orchestra in 2000, then subsequently created moderato section introduces a beautiful melody with sorrow. a version for tenor and piano that was first from Shandong Province called Yi Zhi Hua (One Below the steps plum performed in Korea in 2006. At my request, Yu Flower), famous throughout China as a solo blossoms whirl in the created a version for clarinet and string quartet. piece for the suona (a Chinese double-reed wind snowflakes; The piece has also been performed in a version for instrument). This is followed by an allegro section, No sooner brushed away, soprano and orchestra. then a prestissimo section that brings the first than I am buried again. The present incarnation adds the piano movement to a lively climax. (replacing the harp of the orchestral version) to the string quartet, while the clarinet sings the vocal line. When Yu reworks a composition into another form, the new version is no mere transcription, as each new Robert Schubert medium suggests fresh nuances of Robert Schubert graduated from the timbre and expression. During the Victorian College of the Arts in 1982 recording of this version of Silent having studied with Isobel Carter- and Alone for this CD, Yu was still Stockigt and Phillip Miechel (Principal experimenting, making changes to Clarinet, Melbourne Symphony each musician’s part almost until the Orchestra).